Voice capture is the hardest part of ghostwriting. Here's my interview methodology for extracting authentic voice from any executive client.

I've worked with CEOs who speak in Hemingway-style short sentences and others who think in complex subordinate clauses. I've captured the voice of a Navy SEAL turned entrepreneur (direct, action-oriented, skeptical of abstraction) and an academic-turned-CMO (nuanced, hedged, comfortable with ambiguity).

The voice is always different. The methodology is always the same.

Before the First Interview

Never interview cold. Read everything your client has written previously. LinkedIn posts, old blog content, investor letters, speech transcripts, even internal emails they've written. You're not reading for content—you're listening for rhythm.

Note: Phrases they return to repeatedly. Sentence length patterns. Do they use "and" to connect thoughts or semicolons? Do they ask questions or make statements? Do they speak in metaphors or statistics?

This pre-work serves one purpose: you learn to hear their voice before you ask them to speak it.

The First Interview: Context, Not Content

The first interview should never focus on specific content. Instead, build context:

  • How did they get here? (story, not resume)
  • What do they believe that others in their industry disagree with?
  • What's a failure that taught them something critical?
  • Who are they trying to reach and why?
  • What makes them different from peers in similar roles?

These questions reveal worldview. Worldview creates voice.

The Anecdote Method

Abstract questions get abstract answers. Specific questions about specific moments get stories.

Instead of "What do you think about leadership?", ask "Tell me about a time you had to fire someone and it went badly."

Stories contain voice. The words people use to describe real experiences—not hypothetical philosophies—are the words that sound like them.

I record these interviews and transcribe them. Then I read transcripts aloud. Where do I stumble? Those are likely awkward phrasings that don't match natural speech patterns. Where do I flow? Those are the rhythms that should inform the writing.

The Anti-模板 Exercise

Ask clients to write one paragraph about something they care about, no editing, just stream of consciousness. Then I analyze it:

  • What words appear that they don't realize they use frequently? ("literally," "actually," "the thing about...")
  • Do they write in bullets or paragraphs?
  • What's the ratio of long sentences to short?
  • Where do they use emphasis? (CAPITALS, italics, em-dashes)

This paragraph tells me more about voice than three hours of interview.

The "Sound Like You" Test

After drafting a post, I send it with one question: "Does this sound like you? Mark anywhere that feels off."

Most clients won't catch every voice issue, but they'll catch the obvious ones. A pharmaceutical CEO once told me a draft sounded "too cheerful." She was right—I had infused my own optimism into her content. We revised, and the result felt like her.

Voice Notes Over Written Briefs

When a client briefs me on a topic, I ask them to send a voice memo instead of a written brief. Voice memos capture the way they'd explain it to a colleague—informal, specific, example-laden.

Written briefs tend to be sanitized, structured, and stiff. They represent how clients think they sound, not how they actually sound.

Building Voice Libraries

Over time, I build voice libraries for each client: phrases they love, phrases they hate, topics to approach only positively, topics where they welcome controversy, their favorite metaphors.

This library lives in Notion. Before any major piece, I review it. The result is content that sounds consistent across months and years.

The Hardest Voice: The Reluctant Executive

Some executives are guarded. They don't share anecdotes easily, don't reveal vulnerability, don't want to be "too personal" in content.

With these clients, I work backward from published examples they admire. "This post got great engagement. What do you like about it?" Their analysis reveals their preferences even when they won't share their own stories directly.

Then I write to those preferences, using hypotheticals framed as universal observations rather than personal confessions.

Voice capture is patience. The more you listen, the more you hear.